Major Pay Cut Looms For California's Elected Officials

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — State elected officials will have their annual salaries cut by thousands of dollars starting next month, but the reductions approved by a panel in May could be reversed once the budget deficit ends.

The five percent pay cut impacts the governor, legislators and other California elected officials. San Jose State Political Science Professor and Political Analyst Larry Gerston said it goes into effect on December 3rd.

"It tends to have a symbolic ring in terms of the impact dollar-wise on the state treasury, but of course it's a very substantive impact to those who are affected," he said.

Gerston said the voter-created salary setting commission that approved the cut has in recent years of budget crises reduced elected officials pay by about 20 percent, but that could change.

KCBS' Anna Duckworth Reports:

"The most recent projections out of the legislative analysts' office suggest that we're likely to have a budget surplus over the next four or five years. If that's the case it would seem there would be a little pressure for a commission, no matter who was on it, to no longer reduce legislator's salaries."

The cut amounts to nearly $5,000 less per year for legislators whose base pay will be $90,526. The governor's nearly $9,000 cut drops his salary to $165,288.

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